1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to data processing techniques and, in particular, to a system and method for reading data from a magnetic strip and for interfacing the data with electrical systems.
2. Related Art
It is often desirable to store information on a magnetic strip located on a plastic card or other device. For example, a magnetic strip; also known as a magnetic stripe, is typically located on the back of a credit card. The credit card is swiped through a card reader that reads information from the magnetic strip and processes the data from the magnetic strip through techniques well known in the art.
Many credit cards include three rows or tracks of data within the magnetic strip. Therefore, the card reader often includes three separate reading devices that read information from a respective track of the magnetic strip. Each reading device serially transmits the data read from the magnetic strip to a computer system that processes the data. In this regard, each reading device transmits a notification signal to the computer system prior to reading data from the magnetic strip. In response to the notification signal, the computer system prepares to receive data After the notification signal is transmitted, the reading device serially transmits the data read from the magnetic strip to the computer system.
Serial transmission is inefficient because it takes a relatively long time to transmit the data bit by bit to the computer system. Furthermore, the computer system is usually required to respond to the notification messages from the reading devices even if there are other tasks that need to be performed by the computer system. If the computer system does not respond to a notification message in a timely fashion, then data could be lost. As a result, many computer systems are designed to immediately respond to notification messages from the reading devices even though it may be more efficient for the computer system to perform other tasks before receiving data from the reading devices.
Further decreasing the efficiency of the computer system is the fact that the computer system is usually required to receive data from each reading device separately. Therefore, the computer system is usually required to manage the reception of three separate and sometimes simultaneous flows of data from the reading devices.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry for providing a system and method of efficiently interfacing data read from a magnetic strip. It is desirable that the interface system be integrated so that an external computer system does not have to manage separate flows of data. It is further desirable for the interface system to transmit the data from the magnetic strip in parallel (i.e., via data words) so that the amount of time required to transmit the data is reduced.